📷: Loudoun County High School (Wikimedia Commons)
EdNews Virginia | January 17, 2023
On Tuesday, America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit on behalf of The Daily Wire against the Loudoun County School Board. At issue is the embattled school district’s adherence to Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The lawsuit stems from the investigative journalism of The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak, who for years now has been covering the sexual abuse scandals in Loudoun County Public Schools.
“In October, Mr. Rosiak filed a Virginia FOIA request with Loudoun County to obtain copies of settlement agreements for a six-month time period in 2023. Instead of handing over the requested documents as required under Virginia law, Loudoun County refused; at first saying it was too burdensome and then changing the reasoning, saying it would violate student privacy and were shielded by legal privileges. Mr. Rosiak, working in good faith, filed a second request to try to accommodate the stated justifications from the school,” AFL noted in a Tuesday statement. “After more than a month of delay, it became clear that Loudoun County schools are continuing to cover up their cover-ups and will not release what should be publicly available information without intervention.”
AFL Senior Advisor Ian Prior is blasting the troubled school board for its continued stonewalling. “Over a year ago, a special grand jury in Loudoun County explicitly stated that Loudoun County Public Schools relies on overbroad application of laws to ‘impede transparency, accountability, and openness.’ Yet, even after a Loudoun County Circuit Court forced LCPS to turn over an independent report into the 2021 sexual assaults that it had withheld from the public and even after LCPS’s former superintendent was criminally indicted and convicted as a result of the special grand jury investigation, LCPS continues to stonewall the public when it comes to legitimate requests for how taxpayer money is being used,” Prior said on Tuesday. “It is clear that it’s the same old, same old at LCPS, even with new leadership in place, and that it will be up to the public and intrepid media outlets like The Daily Wire to hold accountable this $1.6 billion, taxpayer-funded institution.”
READ THE LAWSUIT: